Streaming digital content over the Internet has developed into one of the most preferred and effective ways of delivering digital content to audiences around the globe. However, various difficulties arise in delivering content to multiple platforms, each platform potentially having different browsers and different versions of those browsers. Compatibility issues thus arise and streaming content providers have to provide some way to deliver content to as many users as possible in a secure fashion. One of the most popular streaming formats is Flash streaming. In most cases, Flash is available on personal computers, but not available for mobile devices.
HTTP Live Streaming is a streaming format originally designed for use in streaming video content. As a result, HTTP Live Streaming does not account for separate items of content to be consumed in sequence, such as in a playlist. Therefore, in order to accommodate playlists, other measures must be implemented.